I think the important thing in the case of Ralph and his daughter is that they went to training camps whenever they could. They may have been at the first one organized by New York Aikikai where Koichi Tohei Sensei himself was the guest instructor, in 1967 I believe it was. Naturally they got credit for their dedication and guidelines and actual training for their future development. Hartford might be two or three hours travel to and from NYC but I know they did visit sometimes, I'm not sure how often. So their training had quite a bit of supervision and they were respected for beginning on their own ..... out of a book to begin with.

I'm sorry I gave too much detail on my friend visiting there, it was only to say that they continued that dojo for a long time, maybe now too!

I should have emphasized that they went to train with others as often as they could and were supervised from time to time by some of the main teachers of the time.

Perhaps John would be able to visit the "too far" dojo to see if they would be willing to help him from time to time when he could get there. If he liked their way of training, they might reciprocate by supervising his development whenever he could get there. Or if that dojo was not suitable for him, or practical for the dojo's instructors to take on a student who could only visit occasionally, maybe another dojo could be found that could help, since he would not be attending regularly anyway, the most important thing would be the dojo's willingness, and John's feeling he could learn from them.